The Brooklyn Street Skate Spot Benefit Gallery

In the midst of a holiday weekend, it can be hard for a jaded locals such as ourselves motivate for the bumper-to-bumper drive to the mountain. Sure, if we just got up early and just made it happen, we would have been riding pow and having a blast in the rarest of cold, bluebird conditions at Mt. Hood, but when it’s bluebird at the mountain, that means it’s also dry in town. On December 29th, this was the exact case, so my surrogate child Joey Carnera and I took a break from strapping in went on a little skate mission. On our second stop, simply by chance, we discovered a benefit BBQ going on at the Brooklyn Street Skate Spot, a DIY wonderland in Portland’s Brooklyn neighborhood.

Colin from Unhead PDX was cooking up burgers, the local heroes were shredding, and goddamn was it photogenic. The whole thing was a benefit to raise money to continue to add on to the park, and any time someone donated any amount — from 90 cents to $100, they would get a thank you call out on the mic. There were a few impropmtu best trick contests, a bunch of money was raised, concrete was shredded and free burgers were enjoyed. Lets just say it was a nice little Saturday.